Pussyfoot
by BethieBee
Summary: Accidents happen...
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

Daryl Dixon was annoyed. It really wasn't that unusual, all things considered; even he'd admit that 'annoyed' was sort of his default emotion, but this run was not going easily. Not only did he, Glen and Michonne have four newbies with them, but somehow Daryl had ended up with this guy named Mike who talked constantly and seemed unfazed by the hunter's grunts in response to his enthusiastic nattering. If he hadn't known better, Daryl might have attributed the younger man's verbal diarrhea to nerves, but he did know better; Mike talked to everyone and everything, even the walkers when he was killing them along the fences. _Idiot could probably just talk them to death_ , the hunter thought bitterly.

Part of the problem was that they all had to stay alert to what was going on around them and Daryl couldn't allow himself to just tune out the talk like so much droning; the other was that there was some quality in Mike's voice that his hyper-sensitive hearing couldn't seem to ignore. _Probably know more about this moron's family history than my own_ , he thought, _jobs and ex-girlfriends, too_ his mind reminded him. Girlfriends were the current subject of the former heating and air technician's current monologue and Daryl was wondering vaguely if the girls were all deaf mutes because he really couldn't picture anyone else who'd be willing to spend a lot of time around this douche. They were currently clearing what they could from a good-sized, stand-alone department store that had a lot of items left after killing nearly twenty walkers they'd found inside the building as quietly and cleanly as possible.

They'd filled up nearly twelve carts already and taken them forward where Glen and the two people with him, Carlie and John, were packing their take into boxes and large plastic bins that had been carefully selected for how well the fit in the backs of the three SUVs they'd brought on the run, which were getting full. Taking a last look through the store the men had found a cosmetics counter that looked almost like its own little store and which had shelf after shelf of shampoos, body washes and skincare items, even a bunch of lip balms, all of which had been in short supply in many of the stores they'd found. The men loaded everything they could into the carts they had and were rolling them toward the front of the store when Daryl noticed the fine jewelry counter once more. Gold and gems meant next to nothing in the world as it was, but when he spied gold and platinum bracelets covered in clear or colored stones he knew he had to grab some of them. He had his personal pack with him as they all did and had shoved some other things into it, but now he slipped behind the counter, quickly broke the locks with his Busse and grabbed handfuls of whatever jewelry he could find, shoving a last handful of items into one of his pockets when the remaining space in the bag was almost full. _Hell, if nobody else wants it the kids can use it to play dress-up_ , he told himself as they rejoined the group at the front.

It wasn't in his plan at all to end up in the SUV with Mike on the way back to the prison. No, the plan had been to shove Mike into the SUV good-natured Glen was driving and let the young Korean deal with the guy; however, both Glen and Michonne had seemed to sense Daryl's scheme and used the simple strategy of letting Daryl and Mike place the last two loaded containers into their SUV themselves while the others locked up their vehicles and started to roll slowly toward the exit from the parking lot to the road. The hunter cursed under his breath and accepted his fate, but did allow some internal debate about the merits of simply dumping the Man Who Wouldn't Shut Up by the side of the road and speeding into the distance.

 _Probably not much_ , he reluctantly concluded. If he survived, Mike would simply return to the prison, likely having run off all other beings with his talking, and rejoin the group. It sure seemed to Daryl as though somehow the man had gotten through his life up until now without anyone telling him to shut up, _possibly because they couldn't fit the words into the non-existent breaks in the flow from his fat lips_. Mike certainly didn't seem to know the effect he had on others and would probably consider Daryl stopping the vehicle and forcibly ejecting the other man to be some kind of game and not a sign he was no longer welcome at the prison.

Daryl had wandered into a fantasy of creative ways to kill the other man and stop the noise when he heard "Beth" and his attention sharpened back to what the other man was actually saying. _Did he just use the word 'do-able' about the youngest Greene?_ Before he could think, the redneck had slammed on the brakes and turned to glare at the younger man, who'd been startled into silence.

"Don't you fuckin' talk about her like that" he snarled at the other man who regarded him with startled brown eyes. "In fact, don't you fuckin' talk about her again, or to her…I catch you talking to her I'm gonna rip your arms off and beat you to death with them."

"I was just…"

"I don't fuckin' _care_ what you were 'just.' Don't you talk about any of our women like that, especially Beth; have some respect. In fact, just shut up until we get back to the prison." Slamming his right foot back down on the accelerator, they were soon back in their position behind the others who'd slowed down when Daryl's vehicle had stopped.

Something in the hunter's voice must have told Mike the older man was serious when he'd said for Mike to shut up and the other man shockingly remained silent for a few moments.

Daryl thought for a moment he was going to crack his teeth grinding them when he heard "Sorry, man, I didn't know about the two of you." He's about to object, but the other man astonishingly does shut up after saying it and the hunter leaves it alone because the last thing he wants is to get the other man talking again.

o))O((o

The younger Greene daughter is a sore subject for Daryl, not because he doesn't like her, he does (very much so, in fact), it's just that he worries about her constantly. It's not like anyone's ever said to him that he was suddenly responsible for her or anything and made him her guardian; in fact, she has her dad, sister, brother-in-law, Rick (who'd scared some guy to death with just that particular look he got sometimes for saying something inappropriate to the blonde within the former deputy's hearing), Carl and Carol all looking out for her to the point he's sure sometimes he doesn't imagine the haunted look in her eyes. No, looking after her is something he'd taken upon himself from the first time he'd seen her scrubbing his clothes down at a creek while they'd been on the road while the others ignored her absence as they got the camp ready. He'd meant to do them himself the next time he had a chance only to find them gone and Beth alone at the water cleaning them for him, humming some song as she did so, never noticing the approaching walker or Daryl killing it, then standing guard while she finished working and squeezed out as much water as she could, all while he killed three more walkers before they had a chance to get anywhere near her tender flesh.

He'd been behind some trees killing two of the walkers when she'd finished wringing out the last item and headed back toward camp, breaking into a soft song, and it seemed she never saw him. A few days later she'd been helping them clear a house that had some water damage when he'd snatched her away right before a wobbling bookshelf had crashed down where she'd just been standing. The group had gone from that house to others along the same road and there'd obviously been a flood because the other homes were also in bad shape. One home had a basement that still had about a foot of standing water from when it had flooded and Beth had started to put her weight onto the first step to shine her light around and see if it was worth investigating when Daryl moved almost before consciously hearing the sound of wood cracking to pull the little blonde back onto the more solid kitchen floor.

Somewhere along the way the hunter had count of how many times he'd pulled the young woman out of scrapes or saved her when she seemed oblivious to any problems. Merle had teased him about it while he'd been at the prison, saying the two of them reminded him of some old cartoons in which a rough older bulldog had been put in charge of a small, danger-prone kitten who'd walked through scrape after scrape while the dog nearly died protecting her until the two had finally settled safely back at home for the night. Daryl had vaguely remembered the cartoons and hadn't quite managed to shake the idea of Beth as a small blonde cat, especially when she'd fallen asleep against him one night when she'd come up to his perch to sit with him after he'd had to put Merle down. He'd slept sitting up that night, back against the wall, while Beth lay curled partway in his lap for anyone going past to see. Rick had looked at them with a small smile as he quirked his head, which was better than Carol's smirk which reminded him strongly of Merle's in spite of the sympathy he saw in her eyes.

Beth had her own protective instincts, though, and she was more than willing to try to defend any of the others in the group, particularly baby Judith or Carl; also, Hershel was teaching her how to take care of minor injuries, medications and herb lore so that she could work as his nurse and she seemed to actively enjoy being able to care for others. Daryl also couldn't forget how the small blonde had stood up to Rick when he'd hesitated about going to Woodbury to retrieve Maggie, Glen and Merle…okay, she hadn't initially said Merle's name, but he'd also found out later that she'd insisted they go back for him as well as Merle once they'd verified it was really him, even over Maggie and Glen's objections. She was no more willing than he was to lose anyone, she was just more easily restrained from doing anything about it, usually when someone placed a small, squirming Judith in her arms and told her she was needed there, especially if it was Rick or Carl doing it and they looked at her with their sad eyes missing Lori. The redneck had little trouble telling the others to fuck off when he felt they needed to hear it, but even he had a hard time refusing the Grimes' anything they asked at that point, except in what he'd done for Merle…or Beth.

o))O((o

Once the SUVs were unloaded and all the boxes set aside to be gone through and the spoils divided up the next day, Daryl took his pack to his cell (where he'd moved from his perch after Beth had spent the night sleeping against him). If she did it again, he didn't want every passerby smirking at them…not that he anticipated her doing it again, but still; he's pretty sure Hershel looks at him funny sometimes and Glen had made some comment about men involved with Greene girls to him the other day after Maggie had snapped at him about something, almost as though the Korean thought they were conspirators. (Now that he thought back on it, probably his eye roll and grunt hadn't really done anything to lessen that impression.) Once in his cell he pulled out some things of shampoo, conditioner and lotion that all had a sweet fresh strawberry scent that had immediately reminded him of Beth, leaving the things he'd gotten for himself and the jewelry in the bag on his bed.

He carried the things for Beth to her cell, but she wasn't there so he left the bottles, grabbed some supper with the others, attended the Council meeting and gone to bed, where he'd found a small note with "Thank you" neatly written and small heart with angel wings on it and had settled in and managed to sleep a couple hours before one of his nightmares woke him up.

The next morning dawned bright and clear while Daryl sat in the watch tower, having taken guard duty from Carol to give her a few extra hours of sleep. He saw the doors open and Maggie, Glen, Hershel and Beth step outside; the first three heading for one of the picnic tables while the young blonde heads toward the clotheslines to get some of Judith's clothes and bedding she'd washed for the baby the day before. A couple other things are on the line as well, Daryl sees, including some of his clothes. With a sigh, he pushes himself up and heads downstairs to help her out. As he walks he feels something in his pocket knock against his leg and reaches in to find the handful of jewelry he'd thrust in there the day before and grins a little. It'll be a nice surprise for her after what she's done to help everyone this week, but as he gets right up to her and she turns with her arms full of things he lets go of the jewelry so that he can reach out and take the laundry from her, but as he withdraws his hand something comes out of his pocket along with it and hits the ground. Before he thinks he steps around her as she turns to see what he's doing and he drops to one knee to grab the small object and instinctively holds it up to see what it is, but the expression on Beth's face as she looks down at him seems stunned and he looks past her angled body to see delighted expressions dawning on the faces of the others, though none look as pleased as Hershel and he looks at his hand and realizes he's holding a diamond engagement ring up to Beth Greene.

" _What the hell, Daryl?"_ she hisses at him softly..

When his eyes dart behind her, Beth glances over her shoulder at her family (as well as the Grimes' and Carol who have magically appeared), then looks back at him and he thinks he probably looks as shocked as she does. She takes a second glance at her family and the next thing he knows she's saying yes and he's putting the ring on her finger while she whispers to him that they'll talk later and he's suddenly engaged to Beth Greene and, although he thinks she's possibly the most beautiful woman he's ever seen and definitely the sweetest and she smells distractingly good, he has only one thought running through his brain….

 _What the actual FUCK?_

o))O((o


	2. Chapter 2

A/N - Since I forgot to mention this before and in case I forget to mention it again I own nothing at all about "The Walking Dead," "Loony Tunes" (where the name of the story comes from), or any songs, poems, books, etc. that may be mentioned.

o))O((o

By the time they have breakfast that morning, Daryl's pretty sure he's never had his hand shaken as much in his entire life as he has since getting up off his knee and he's been hugged – _hugged!_ – by people whose name he barely knows. Even Mike's stopped to offer his congratulations, though he doesn't say anything to Beth after seeing the slightly crazed look in Daryl's eyes as the hunter walks behind the little blonde who is carrying bowls of oatmeal for them both. He steers her around a couple obstacles she doesn't seem to see because she's talking to people and being hugged herself, and catches her when she starts to slip as her foot hit a blob of oatmeal some kid had dropped, losing his train of thought briefly when she turns to give him a brilliant smile at that, before he finally steers her to a spot at a table across from Hershel, Maggie and Glen and makes sure she is securely next to Rick, who is holding Judith, before he finally sits down beside her.

Beth promptly takes the baby and her bottle from Rick so that he can eat his own oatmeal even as Beth's sits cooling and Daryl feels a double flash of guilt, both over starting to eat his own breakfast and the fact that he feels Hershel would probably have preferred their leader as Beth's fiancé instead of himself.

The others admire her ring again…even Daryl admits to himself that it's pretty, the center stone is a nice size for her hand, plus there are tiny stones around it and the platinum band looks old-fashioned, maybe 1920's or so, and all in all it suits the petite blonde perfectly. Fate - or whatever had prompted all this - may have had a devilish sense of humor, but also had amazingly good taste. For some reason it makes him think of Merle, who'd liked to joke he liked his women like he liked his food - fast, cheap and easy – but had always sworn you could tell a quality woman by the jewelry she wore and wondered if his brother was pushing him from the other side. In spite of teasing Daryl, Merle had liked Beth and admired her spirit, though the tips of Daryl's ears went pink remembering some of the other things his brother had said about the petite blonde.

A thought strikes him as he looks over at her family and he finds himself apologizing to Hershel for not talking to him ahead of time…even though he knew the whole thing was a mistake – a _huge_ misunderstanding – he still has a degree of love and respect for Hershel he'd never felt for his own dad and he wants the older man to think well of him.

"I'm sorry I didn't talk to you before asking Beth. I just got the ring yesterday and dropped it by accident and then she'd seen it and it had ruined the surprise." Talk about surprised; after a few hours of surprises he couldn't quite believe the words had just come out of his mouth; he'd never been inclined toward lying, he'd used defensiveness or other things instead, but he'd always been good at it and Hershel accepted what he said.

"Smooth," Glenn heckles under his breath, dragging the word out.

"I won't lie to you, son, I was surprised you didn't talk to me first, but I give you both my blessing."

"I didn't think you'd ever get up the guts to do anything about it," Maggie adds with a grin. "Glen tried to run a game on it, but too many of us wanted 'never' for it to be profitable."

"What was the winner going to get?" Beth asks curiously as Rick places the burp rag that had been on his own shoulder onto hers when she pulls the empty bottle away from the baby, but before she can start burping Judy, Daryl rolls his eyes, takes the rag and the baby and gestures for Beth to eat since he's already finished his oatmeal.

Glen flushed and looked guiltily at Hershel, "Uhhh, a box of condoms." At the looks from the others he adds defensively, "Hey, they're in short supply and high demand; they're not even expired."

Beth regards him with her wide, cornflower blue eyes as she replies, "I think you should give them to Daryl and me since you were trying to bet on us."

Daryl almost loses his grip on Judith hearing those words and Hershel puts his head in his hands and mutters, "I don't think I needed to hear that" while Rick's trying to hide his grin in his coffee cup

"What?" Beth asks, wide-eyed and innocent-looking as she rescues Judith from Daryl's slackened grip and cuddles her reassuringly. "We'll need them eventually and we should have a little time before we start having our own babies; this little niblet's enough for me right now." She looks back at Daryl, "Are you okay? You look a little green."

"I don't think he thought that far ahead, baby sis," Maggie laughs. "Hey, Daryl, if you think you're going to faint, you should put your head between your legs." The brunette looks back at her sister, "I'm not sure you should marry someone who gets woozy at the thought of having sex with you."

"Maggie!" Beth exclaims, blushing, as Hershel heaves himself up from his seat and grabs his crutches, still not quite used to the prosthetic leg Daryl had found him on a run and says, "That's my cue to leave," but he stops and looks back at the new couple seriously, "You should think about having children sooner rather than later, you know; nothing's guaranteed in this world and we have some stability right now."

"Daddy, you don't get to pester them for grandchildren either," Maggie scolds gently. "Beth and I know how you feel…twelve each, right?"

Hershel smoothes her dark hair and pats her cheek gently. "Sounds about right" he replies before moving away toward the restrooms.

An image of a dozen tiny, danger-prone Asskickers with blonde hair and big blue eyes pops into Daryl's head and a small moan floats out between his lips.

No sooner has the old vet hobbled away than Carol plops down in the vacant seat with her own breakfast and regards Daryl with amusement, "Okay there, Pookie? You look a little green, maybe you should go lie down."

"He just realized he's going to have to have sex with Beth," Maggie responds for him.

"That's a bad precedent" comes from the gray-haired woman.

"Hey!" Beth says, starting to sound a little angry as she shifts Judith so she can rub a comforting hand over Daryl's back.

It's the hunter's turn to stand and prepare to flee, but he takes the time to mumble to her, "Gonna go check the vehicles for the run tomorrow."

"I'll see you later," Beth says sweetly with a grin as she waves Judith's arm as though the baby's waving at him and he feels the corner of his mouth twitch up in response before he strides off.

He's pretty sure the laughter he hears behind him is at his expense and it's okay…okay because he's going to loosen the bolts on Glen and Maggie's cots later, but first he's going to hide the shovel Rick likes best and will want when he comes out to work on the garden. Carol he's going to have to think about for a while because there's no way she can suspect he did whatever it is because her payback is a bitch.

o))O((o

A morning spent working on the vehicles after making sure nobody sees him retrieve and hide the shovel is just what he needs after the trials of that morning. He'd actively enjoyed listening to Rick fuss about the missing implement before settling down to work with a hoe the former deputy hated using, before he'd really gotten to work on the first vehicle. He was on the third one now, checking it over carefully, doing his part to keep everyone safe on the run. The work's easy for him and soothing; it's always easier for him to think when he's working on vehicles or cleaning his crossbow and he imagines it's what some other people experience when going to church or praying.

"Hey" Beth's voice sounds close to his shoulder and he jumps a little at the noise, banging his head against the hood and letting a flow of curse words come out. He feels her small hand come out and rub over the spot he hit soothingly. "Let me see" she orders, gently guiding his head down as he bends at the waist until she can see the spot even though he grumbles the whole time.

Her fingers comb through his hair carefully, which feels unnervingly good to the hunter, before she declares him okay and he straightens to see she's got Judith sleeping against her shoulder.

"Why didn't you put her down? You're gonna' wear yourself out holding her all the time." His hands itch to take the baby from her, but he's covered in grease, dirt and sweat at that point and doesn't want to get it all over the cute pink and green striped outfit she's changed Judy into knowing it would just make more work for the young blonde.

"We're _fine_ , Daryl," Beth reassures him patiently. "Some of the Woodbury women wanted to play with her after breakfast while I helped with the dishes, but they got her all wound up and she screamed for an hour before I could calm her down. I'm not going to risk doing anything that would wake her up."

Daryl looks her over and sees the small, tell-tale signs of stress the young woman hides fairly well, but she also seems okay, so he just nods and reaches back in to finish snapping in the filter he'd replaced. "That the only thing bothering you?" he asks, wondering why she's out there when she hardly comes to talk to him while he's working unless it's important.

A small, incredulous burst of laughter chokes out of her and when he looks over at her she's looking at him as though she thinks he may have hit his head harder than she'd originally thought. When he continues to look at her, she waggles her left hand at him… _oh, that._

He's been hoping they could just not talk about _that_ , or the stuff the others had brought up at breakfast. "Why do women always want to talk about shit?"

 _Oh, damn, that was out loud._

Disbelief is practically radiating off of her slight frame when he looks back at her and her eyelids are fluttering like they sometimes do when she's trying to process something startling and new, but she's snapped out of it when she hears Rick yelling her name.

"Oh, jeez, what's got him in a mood?" she mutters before looking back at the hunter. "I'll deal with you later" she adds before scampering off to find Judith's dad, tripping a little over a lug wrench he'd carelessly left lying in the grass, but recovering quickly and continuing on.

He's returning that shovel right after lunch.

o))O((o

By evening the hunter's feeling pretty good about things. He's managed to find some time while the cell block was abandoned and loosened the bolts on the cots Glen and Maggie have sitting side-by-side in their cell, he's also returned the shovel undetected and managed to avoid Beth and the conversation he just knows is coming where she gives back the ring. Even though actually getting engaged hadn't been his intention when he'd gone to her that morning, he likes the idea more and more, not least because now the guys who've been sniffing around her will back off if they know what's good for them, and he's certainly not going to mess it up by _talking_ to her and giving her a chance to back out of it.

He's seen couples get married and stay together for years without seeming to talk at all if you didn't count screaming and he's trying to think of a way to make that work with Beth – not the screaming part, just the not talking. _She likes to talk, though, she's probably going to expect at least a little talking._ Hershel had told him once that he'd thought Maggie's mama liked to talk until he met the woman who'd become his second wife and Beth's mama and it had been a real eye-opener for him. Sure, Beth is normally quiet - she hadn't even said much while they'd been on the road , not around the others, at least, though he'd caught humming to herself sometimes – and times when he'd been upset and she'd come to sit with him she'd known to just sit companionably nearby or snuggle into his side or just hold his hand. Anyone else trying those things, even Carol, would have gotten yelled at or maybe even hit, but the small, gentle blonde was just different to him.

At one point he'd suspected it was because she was so tiny…she'd told people she was five-foot six, but Carol had told him later that she was that height, had a couple in inches on Beth and was well past the stage where she was growing taller. He'd particularly noticed after Maggie had found a soft pair of black moccasins that had just plain suede all the way around and brought them back for her sister. In her boots Beth was almost as tall as Carol and just up past Daryl's shoulders if he was also in his boots, but in the moccasins she wasn't quite shoulder height to him and made Rick look tall. Besides, she was only about as big around as Lori, though her butt was a little fuller than the older woman's had been, high and round like a tiny peach, though Lori's boobs had been bigger.

Great, now he wanted a peach, a ripe, fresh peach that would leave juices on his face…and now there's no way in hell he's going to sleep, even settled comfortably on his cot.

Just as he sighs and thinks he should probably just get up and head outdoors to help with the watch there's a huge, clanging crash that echoes through the cell block and it scares him so that he ends up on his feet and out with his crossbow up to look for attackers, heading downstairs instinctively. The sound hasn't even died down when the hunter's ears can pick out Judith's screams as her sensitive ears hurt from the noise. Beth flies out of her cell, hair going every which way, still in her shorts and tank top and hurries to Rick's cell where she runs into the former deputy in the cell door before she makes it into his room to pick up the baby.

 _Didn't think about it waking up the kid._

Glen comes out of their cell running his hand through his hair and saying "It's okay, it's just out bunks…sorry everybody," and heads for the broom closet where they keep a couple toolboxes. People groan and turn back, but Judy's still screaming and Beth's in Rick's doorway, cuddling the baby close while Rick tries to help by running his hands over the baby and murmuring soothingly. When he tries to take his daughter, though, Judith screams get more frantic and Beth smiles a little at Rick and leans into his comforting hug before she turns to start walking the baby.

Beth's almost even with him when Judy grabs a handful of blonde hair and yanks on it making his fiancée wince and try to get her hair free and Daryl stops her and helps free her locks. As he's loosening the baby's grip he can see how tired the young blonde looks and grunts, "Give her here, I can't sleep anyhow, may as well take care of Li'l Asskicker."

He barely has the screaming baby in his arms when she reaches up and wraps both hands in his hair, tugging. _Damn girl's gonna' be able to arm wrestle Popeye when she's grown_. Beth giggles tiredly at his expression and helps him loosen his hair from the baby's grip, but once it's free she pulls her own hair back and uses a tie she has around her wrist along with all the bracelets then gestures for the baby, the faint lights around the cell block catching on the diamond and twinkling back at him and he forgets himself for a moment and puts his hand over hers where it rests on Judith's back. His eyes meet Beth's then move to her lips and without thinking he leans in closer and he thinks that she might be stretching up toward him, but when his face is only an inch or so from hers when suddenly their heads are jerked together and Beth's forehead smacks into the bridge of his nose and he gets tears in his eyes. When they're finally disentangled Judith's no longer crying or whining, she seems almost giggly as she watches the faces Daryl's making.

"Are you okay?" Beth whispers, one of her small hands reaching up and cupping his face gently.

"Yeah, take more than a tug from this little thing to hurt me."

"Good," Beth whispers, her fingers stroking into his hair and suddenly his face is jerked close to hers and she tips up looking directly in his eyes and hisses, "We are talking _tomorrow_ even if I have to go on that run with you. You can't avoid me forever." She looks at him seriously, "I mean it, you leave without talking to me I will be _very_ angry." Then, she pecks him on the lips before turning and walking off singing softly to the baby to put her to sleep.

 _Well, damn._

o))O((o


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

Daryl thinks things are going well the next day. Two groups are scheduled to leave the prison; Glenn and Maggie are going to investigate a town to the northeast while Daryl's heading southeast with Michonne. One thing he always appreciates about her is that the dreadlocked woman doesn't ask a lot of questions and tends to roll along easily with him and they're going a little further than usual today looking for some old peach orchards he remembers from his days running with Merle and they're going to also try to hit a couple of smaller towns as well if they don't look too picked-over.

The dawn hadn't even begun to break when he'd gone to find the swordswoman and she hadn't asked him why they were leaving in what was basically the middle of the night or argue with him about the definition of "first thing in the morning" like some people (Glenn) usually did when the hunter was having a hard time sleeping. Granted, Daryl's never really insisted on going quite this early and going out in the dark isn't a particularly great idea, but he'd already decided facing a road full of walkers was probably less dangerous than that Talk Beth wants, (he's definitely thinking of it with a capital letter now), so the clock on the dash is glowing 4:18 AM at them and they're cruising along the highway trying to make it to a good spot in mid-Georgia to find peach groves because they all need some fresh fruit and Carol's promised him she has the ingredients to make a cobbler or two if they bring back fresh peaches.

"You know you're going to have to talk to her sooner or later, right?" Michonne's voice drifts to him just as he's begun to get comfortable. "All you're doing by avoiding her right now is making her frustrated and angry."

 _Damn._

"Don't know what you're talking about," he tries, hoping she's going to drop it, though after the ribbing he'd gotten yesterday he's really not holding out a lot of hope.

Her snort tells him everything he needs to know, "You know I saw your proposal from the watch tower, right? You meant to get engaged to her like I meant to slide in that mud and fall on my ass a few weeks ago, though we've all known the two of you had a thing for a while."

"There's no 'thing,'" he insists.

"That's what you say, but you look at her like she's magic and she looks at you like she's never seen a man before and really wants to find out what all that's about."

"You're dreaming," he snorts. "Must've hit your head when you slipped in that mud."

"Only if my brain migrated to my ass because my skull was too small to hold it anymore," Michonne smirked at him. "Okay, even if you didn't look at her like she's sunshine in human form, you seem to have decided long before I got here that she can't function without your hands on her somehow."

"Just don't want her hurting herself or Li'l Asskicker" he insists.

"They seem to be surviving just fine so far; besides, you laughed at Carol when she tripped on the way back from the garden."

"She had a bowl full of greens that went flying and one landed on her head like a damn hat," he said, grinning a little at the memory, the large leaf flopping around her head while the bright red stem had stood crookedly up in the air. "Besides, I checked and made sure she wasn't hurt." He glances sideways at Michonne, "Oh, come on, that shit was funny!"

"I'm just saying is that if it had been Beth she'd have had to make you laugh about it and you'd have probably checked her top to bottom before you let her get up instead of just offering her a hand up like you did with Carol and glared at anyone who dared to so much as chuckle about it."

"Carol's tough," Daryl insists. "I mean, Beth is too, but she's…different."

'You laughed at Maggie when she took out that walker and it exploded back on her and covered her with bits and she's Beth's sister."

"She wasn't hurt and the expression on her face…!" he snorts again remembering the slack-jawed, startled indignation on Maggie's face that had quickly morphed into a comical disgust.

The dreadlocked woman sighs at him and says, "Look, my point in all that is you need to talk to Beth so the two of you come to some kind of understanding. Not only are you just pissing her off by avoiding her, but you may be surprised by what she has to say."

 _I doubt it._

"Oh, he's definitely pissed me off," Beth's voice sounds from the back seat as she flings off the blanket she'd covered herself with and the blonde's head pops up into view.

Daryl's startled jerk takes the SUV into a ditch.

o))O((o

After the dust settles and he's able to stop cursing, Daryl discovers that his abrupt, rough stop had flung Beth up against one of the windows and now has a goose egg rising under her thick hair, but at least there's no blood.

Thankfully the ditch wasn't deep and the higher clearance on the SUV allowed him to maneuver it back out onto the road before getting out to check on Beth. At the moment Michonne was driving while Daryl's with Beth in the back seat, having broken out one of their precious cold packs from their emergency medical kit and was holding it to the lump on his fiancée's head while she grumbled at him.

"What the hell are you doing hiding in the SUV anyway?" he gripes at her.

"I was desperate to talk to a certain yellow-bellied bowman for some reason," Beth replies, giving him another waggle of the ring on her hand.

"Nobody here but us chickens," Michonne contributes from the front seat. "You go ahead and talk about whatever you need to."

"We can wait," Daryl says quickly.

"So that you can escape again? I don't think so." Beth says stubbornly, crossing her arms. Daryl's got her strapped in to a seatbelt with a shoulder strap now, but he's also strapped himself in, though he's in the middle without any shoulder strap of his own so that he can be close enough to hold the ice pack since she takes it down and glares at him every time he says anything if he lets her hold it. She'd huffed a bit at his insistence, but allowed it after a moment, though the fact that she's still not happy with him is fairly obvious. "Michonne won't say anything, will you, 'Chonne?"

"Only if it's just too funny to keep to myself."

Daryl cringes at the statement and Beth rolls her eyes, "She's not going to say anything, Daryl." She eyes him again and sighs, "Fine, we'll wait until we're stopped, but you have to promise to stay with me and actually talk, okay?"

"Fine, I promise," he mumbles.

"Just remember that," Beth murmurs, nudging him until he wraps one arm around her and she can lean into him and settle her arms around him and her head on his shoulder where he can hold the ice pack more comfortably.

"Hey, don't go to sleep," he nudges her gently with the shoulder were her head rests.

"Daryl, I don't have a concussion, I have a runaway fiancé and had to try to sleep in an SUV to catch him."

"Come on, then just hold up your head and let me see your eyes for a minute."

With a small sigh, she raises her head and glares at him so that he could see her pupils are even and steady on his, even if her eyes look both sleepy and annoyed.

"Okay, fine you can go to sleep, but I'm going to wake you up once in a while." He places the ice pack back to the lump as she settles back against him. Once she seems comfortable he whispers, "Don't be mad at me."

She abruptly lifts her head again and presses her lips to his in a series of several small kisses, to which he finds himself responding enthusiastically before she draws back, looks at him and replies, "The talk will go a lot better if you let me get some sleep."

As the blonde settles against him once again, Michonne snorts from the front seat, "Yeah, nothing there at all…I really wish Glenn had gotten that pool going"

"Who would you have used the condoms with?" Beth asks curiously.

"You know something? Daryl's right, we should just listen to music for a while."

Suddenly seeing this through and actually marrying Beth seems like the best idea in the world.

o))O((o

Michonne has to wake them both up when they reach a peach orchard with a minimal number of walkers and a huge amount of fruit still up on the trees.

"I never thought I'd see anything like this again!" Beth exclaims as she climbs out of the vehicle and heads to the back to grab one of the pairs of gloves they have before digging around to find a bag with a long handle she can fling over her head to hang around her body and grabs a crate all without seeming to look up while Daryl and Michonne take out any nearby walkers.

Daryl finishes taking out the last walker and looks around to realize he's lost track of the petite blonde and has a frantic moment before he spies her up one of the trees picking peaches into the bag while the crate rests on the ground nearby.

"Don't run off like that!" he fusses after stomping over.

"Where's your bag?" Beth asks.

"Just gonna pick from the ground" he replies after looking around to see that Michonne's got another crate and bag and is standing on a ladder she'd found and picking several trees away.

"Okay, so let's talk."

 _Should've picked another tree._

"What's to talk about?" he tries.

"Well, we need to decide some stuff because Maggie's going to look for a wedding dress for me while they're out today and Carol asked what I'd think about a wedding cobbler instead of a wedding cake, so if we don't come up with a plan I have a feeling we could have a ceremony as early as tomorrow."

"Doesn't sound horrible."

"Daryl!"

 _Really gotta work on that whole inner voice thing._

o))O((o


	4. Chapter 4

AN - Again, I own nothing about The Walking Dead, Loony Tunes or any songs, poems, books, etc. that may be referenced in this work; however, the comparisons and story are my own original ideas. Enjoy!

o))O((o

"Look, I just need you to take this seriously for five minutes," Beth tries. "Maggie gets a little crazy over this kind of thing and if she finds a wedding dress that will go over my head the next thing is going to be pushing us into a ceremony."

"Beth, nobody can force us to get married…well, I'd listen to your daddy if he had a shotgun…or Maggie…Rick or Carl…" his voice trailed off. "Okay, maybe they can force us to get married…."

"Daryl, focus honey!" Beth broke in, waving at him.

"Sorry...uh," he glances back at her, then glares at the peach as though it was going to give him an answer before looking back at her, "Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

Large blue eyes blink at him from among the leaves and golden fruit, "Well, no, but…I mean, do you want to? I seem to annoy you all the time. You hate my singing..."

"I've gotten used to it."

"You're always complaining that I'm clumsy…."

"I can catch you."

"You mocked me for days when I accidentally sewed Rick's shirt to my jeans…."

"Come on, you know it was cute…."

"My driving makes you crazy…."

She had him there, it really did, mostly because she liked to make eye contact with people when she was talking to them and never seemed to look at the road. "I can drive," he responded hastily. "How did you get by before all this? Didn't you have to take a driving test?"

"I passed my test, Daryl, but I mostly just drove on the farm. Jimmy used to pick me up and take me places if someone else wasn't taking me."

"At least Farmer Fred was good for something…made the roads safer for people and animals in Georgia."

"Hey!" She drops down out of the tree inches from him and looks at him curiously. "I thought you'd be trying to get out of this, but you're not are you?"

"Well, thought about it and it could be good." He glances at her again before studying his boots seriously, "I mean, you seem annoyed sometimes at all the attention you get from the guys back at the prison."

"Yeah," she said thoughtfully, "yesterday most of them just congratulated me and left me alone and Mike hasn't said a word to me since it happened! It was great to get all my work done in time to have some time alone just to write and draw before going to sleep; usually all that's been taking up hours of my time." She toes the ground for a minute herself before glancing up at him and biting her lip, "It's not going to stop all the girls and women from trying for you all the time, though…are you going to be okay with turning them away? There are some awfully pretty ones who've come in."

Daryl snorts "Who?"

Beth looks at him searchingly for a moment, "Okay, I'm just going to leave that one alone, but we've never really dated or talked about a lot of stuff; we can't just get married without talking about some things."

"Why not?" he asks before adding, "You're going to give yourself a headache rolling your eyes like that."

"I already have a headache. Aren't there things you think we should talk about?" When he shakes his head she asks curiously, "Why not?"

He sighs and look at her seriously, "We've known each other for over a year now, right?" At her nod, he continues, "Pretty sure we know the things we really need to know."

"But what about things like kids…?"

"I know you want kids" he interrupts. "Know your daddy wants grandbabies."

"How can you be so calm now? I know you didn't have the greatest home life growing up and just yesterday you were turning green and looking like you were going to drop Judy and hurl all over breakfast. Maggie didn't shut up about it for hours."

"Well, my parents weren't great and Merle had his problems, but I thought about it and you'd stop me from doing any real harm." He grins at her a little, "Dozen could be a bit much."

She giggles, "Oh, your face when Maggie said that! Priceless!"

"At least she was just joking."

"Uhhh…sure...just so you know, I'm totally letting you take the blame if we fall short. I'll tell Daddy you and Rick have a little something on the side," she added with a giggle.

"Damn, why can't people just believe people can just be friends anymore? Rick's like my brother."

Beth's jaw drops, "Someone actually thinks that?"

Damn. "There was some talk after I turned a couple women down. Just because I don't want to jump on everything that moves…."

"Ugh, that's like when I turned down Josh and Zach for sex and they both went around saying I'd slept with them anyway and people believed it because I kissed them a couple times. People can be awful!"

"You were kissing them?" the words blurt out before he can stop them.

"Well, it was months ago and you certainly weren't kissing me; besides, I only really kissed Zach, Josh forced it."

"Is that why Rick kicked him out?" he wishes Rick hadn't done that; he'd like a crack at that little shit.

"Yeah, he heard the stuff Josh was saying about me and came to find me to ask about it and I was crying a little about everything because I'd only found out a little while before myself…."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" he demands.

"Because I thought you might try to hang him from the fence like some kind of piñata for the walkers."

Daryl's mind immediately leapt to figuring out how he could have managed that and determined that with the right equipment it wouldn't have been hard at all.

"Daryl!" He feels Beth shaking his arm and it brings him out of his fantasy, "You can't hang people from the fences like piñatas. Among other things the yelling and fresh meat would probably attract too many walkers. Well, plus, we're not going to be like The Governor."

She takes a step back toward the tree and promptly stumbles over the crate she'd brought over for the peaches she'd picked and spilled over sideways the bag of fruit flipping up and hitting her in the face causing her to give a little cry of pain. Daryl was by her side in a flash, lifting the bag up and away so that it was off her and checking her over, his heart aching when he saw bruises already forming on her cheek and forehead, but it was the tears of pain and surprise in her eyes that made him groan and gather her into his arms as he checked her over carefully for other problems, relieved when all he could find was more sore spots on her legs from falling over the crate.

"Gonna be the death of me, girl."

"Would you two stop snuggling in the grass and get back to work?" Michonne yells, throwing a peach in their direction to get their attention. "If we get caught by a herd before we get back I'm telling everyone you're pregnant!"

Daryl and Beth scramble up and Beth climbs the tree like a squirrel after dumping her peaches into the crate.

o))O((o

By the time they head back that night the bruises have darkened on Beth's face to blue and purple, though the ice pack had helped the knot on her head and her shirt had ripped up the back when she'd fallen out of the tree and a branch had caught the material. Also, she'd almost gotten bitten when she'd seen a shelf of formula they needed for Judith and she hadn't noticed the walker rising from the floor behind her as she pulled armfuls of cans from the shelf before Daryl had stabbed it through an eye, but she'd tripped on the way out and torn a hole in the right knee of her jeans on her way out to the SUV.

In other words, she's actually fine other than being scraped and bruised while Daryl's fairly vibrating with tension and is trying to remember the symptoms of a heart attack from a long ago poster on a wall in an emergency room he'd read over and over while Merle was getting his head stitched after some barroom brawl.

Michonne's driving and with both the back seat as well as the storage compartment full, Daryl's in the passenger seat all strapped in with his arms wrapped around Beth who is snuggled into his lap and sound asleep with her face buried in his neck, small puffs of her breath breaking across his skin.

"How'd all that get started anyway?" Michonne asks, keeping her voice pitched low.

"All what?" Daryl responds, wanting to make sure he doesn't start talking about the wrong thing.

"That" she replies, gesturing toward his arms around the young blonde. "You barely let anyone else within three feet of you, but the two of you are always up on each other."

Beth doing his laundry and other things to take care of him had made him want to protect her with a fierceness he'd never felt for anyone else before, but that wasn't the first time she'd touched him. That was after he'd had one hell of a day hunting for Sophia and she'd asked him about it and when he'd snarled out his frustration and rage over all the things going wrong to the others he'd stalked off to be alone, then suddenly heart light steps running toward him which had made him stop and whirl around ready to yell at whoever was there and had suddenly found strong thin arms wrapped around his waist and a little blonde head tucked under his chin as she'd hugged him. As suddenly as it had started, she let him go and was running lightly back toward the house before he could even react, leaving behind a warm imprint on his body where hers had been and a stunned feeling at how good it had felt to have her hug him so fiercely.

Her hugs had been impulsive and unpredictable over things for which he'd never expected any thanks, no matter how much he'd deserved it and one day she'd also added a kiss to his cheek when she'd hugged him as he sat cleaning his crossbow and she'd been able to reach his face with hers. After he'd figured out she'd add the kiss when she could he'd caught himself tipping his head involuntarily whenever she'd hug him and one day after Josh (he was still fantasizing ways to kill the jerk if he ever returned) had been let go and Zach had died, Daryl had turned his head when Beth had taken him by surprise with a hug and her lips had landed on his and he'd responded without any thought at all. After that, most times she hugged him she'd add a kiss on his lips. He'd never kissed her first, just made sure to bend his head so that she could kiss him if she wanted and she'd done it frequently, just as she'd done when she'd hugged him, no matter who was around.

For some reason the rest of the group had assumed there was something between them, just because he really never allowed anyone else to touch him other than Rick laying a hand on him once in a while.

"Earth to Daryl!" Michonne says, waving a slender hand in his face.

"Dunno, just started one day," he mumbles and sighs a little as Beth snuggles closer in response to his arms tightening around her and presses as drowsy kiss to his neck before falling fully back asleep and he gives a contented growl.

"Right and cotton candy comes out my ass when I eat sugar."

o))O((o

They got back to the prison in plenty of time for supper and everyone was excited about the fruit, though Daryl hid a couple peaches just for Beth since she'd said how much she loved them.

Maggie brought out a wedding dress she'd found when they'd been out that day. It was in surprisingly good shape, completely white and nothing at all like what Daryl had ever pictured Beth wearing at any point, strapless and fitted and covered with lace and beads. Beth's smile became forced as she looked at it.

"Oh, Maggie…thank you for thinking of me, this is so sweet of you! Isn't it sweet, Daryl?" Beth adds, nudging him.

"It's a piece of…" he starts before Beth nudges him with her elbow, hard. "Uh, it's real white," he adds lamely.

"And we have a surprise for you both," Maggie adds, dragging them toward the stairs and up, with Glenn, Rick and Carl trailing after them.

Daryl catches Beth around the waist and helps her as she stumbles on the steps, her wrist held in her sister's vice-like grip and feels a twinge of apprehension since they are currently heading for his cell.

"Surprise!" they all crow as they reach his cell and proudly show it to the couple.

It's all been cleaned and rearranged, the cots cut apart and arranged side-by-side like the ones in Maggie and Glenn's cell and a new mattress placed on top of them, a small dresser for the bedside and the desk Daryl recognizes from Beth's cell along with the two garden gnomes he really, really hates and Beth thinks are adorable. Some of the pictures she gets from the kids on an almost daily basis are up on the walls and he recognizes her pillowcase and blanket on the bed.

"Made sure we got the bolts nice and tight for you," Glenn adds, clapping Daryl on the shoulder with a false camaraderie.

o))O((o


	5. Chapter 5

The bed wasn't a success.

The mattress that Glenn and Maggie had put on the bed was an air mattress that was in some ways better than any of the prison mattresses, but it turned out to have one huge drawback. Maggie and Glenn had insisted the new couple try out the bed and Beth had crawled on first, lying on her back near the wall and saying how comfortable it was; however, when Daryl had flopped down next to her in his customary fashion, things had taken a turn for the worse. The air mattress reacted like a springboard and catapulted the tiny blonde into the wall, face-first like she'd been thrown by an angry bronco.

Under any other circumstances, Daryl's first instinct would have been to exclaim in distress and cuddle his new fiancée, but the whole thing was so unexpected and her limbs and hair had gone in every direction as she'd flown into the air and before he knew what had happened, a huge and uncharacteristic bellow of laughter had erupted from his mouth and melded with the chortles from Glenn, Rick and Carl as well as a shocked snort from Maggie, that was quickly choked off. After Beth had landed back on the mattress and squirmed around to sit up, though, Daryl had seen the blood running down her face from under the hands she had crossed over her nose and tears of pain were streaming from her eyes. Everyone had immediately stopped laughing and Maggie had reached quickly for her sister.

Daryl had barely had a chance to sit up when Beth had scooted past him and was being guided out of the cell by her sister.

"Addhoed" and a bright blue death-glare at the hunter and her brother-in-law were all the little blonde managed before her sister got her out of the room.

o))O((o

Daryl was a little worried. Before that day he'd never fully realized how efficiently Beth and Carol worked together to get things done around the prison, but Carol had effortlessly distracted Maggie, Glenn and even Daryl himself while Beth had moved her pillow and night things back to her old cell and one of them had somehow managed to destroy the ugly wedding gown. The problem for Maggie was that nobody could prove anything. By the time the brunette's outraged cries rang through the prison, her sister had been outside tending to Judith and the other children for a couple hours and Carol had been outside mending and nobody could prove who'd hung the dress under the pipe rapidly dripping rusty water that had proceeded to stain the entire front of the dress beyond repair.

Beth had somehow actually managed to tear up and appear upset at the loss of the once-white horror and Maggie's accusations had diverted from her little sister, though everyone else was certainly feeling her suspicious, heavy gaze upon them, including Daryl himself, at least until he produced Rick as his alibi since he'd followed Carol's suggestion that the two men go walk the fences together.

The hunter could only hope they'd use their powers for good in the future.

Unfortunately, he was pretty sure from Beth's badly bruised nose and eyes that some kind of vengeance for both the mattress and the completely unintentional (albeit loud) laughter was going to be considered "for good" by both his favorite women.

He was absolutely positive that the (again, completely unintentional) bursts of laughter at the memory of his fiancée flying into the wall weren't helping his case.

o))O((o

Back on another run the next day with Mike as his partner, Daryl was hoping that - if he could make it through without actually killing the loudmouth – people (Beth and Carol) would notice his penance and have mercy on him.

This run was really just exploratory and Daryl would usually have done such a thing alone or with someone much more experienced at stealthy exploration (or at least capable of stealth, which involved shutting up), such as Glenn or Michonne; however, not only were they truly trying hard to integrate the newbies, but everyone was happy to see Mike leave the prison with someone other than themselves. Most places in a five-mile radius of the prison, especially toward the west and south, had been pretty well picked-over, so this run was going a bit further out and heading northeast when a crossroad met the only usable one that ran to and from the prison. Daryl had used one of their precious maps to do a hand-drawn map of the routes he wanted to take and they could add on other roads, note the towns and stuff on the hand-drawn page since they were trying to keep the maps in good shape.

After only about thirty minutes of Mike's nattering, Daryl was more than ready to toss the loquacious man to the next group of walkers he saw and speed off as quickly as possible, but he just sighed, ran a hand through his hair and kept going, making it almost another hour of cautiously driving down back roads while Mike noted all their turns and landmarks, the houses, stores and towns they went through on their handmade map, until another vision of Beth flying off that damn mattress appeared before his eyes and he snorted again with quickly-suppressed laughter.

Mike stopped mid-sentence and just looked at the hunter for a split-second before saying, "Maybe you should just let it all out, man."

"What are you talking about?" Daryl growled in response, ears turning pink in embarrassment.

"Uh…it's just sometimes the more you try to not laugh the more you want to do it. Just let yourself laugh and get it out or it will just keep on coming up."

Daryl sat still for a moment, stunned that the other man had actually offered what could be a good suggestion, but his instinct to bluster came to the forefront, "You don't know what you're talking about, Mike. Hey, while you're talking, just keep an eye out for anything that may be good."

"What about that place?" Mike asked immediately, pointing off toward what looked to be just a grove of trees. Daryl glanced over and saw a quick flash of white amidst the gray trunks. "Looks like a big house back behind that stand of trees," the talkative man added.

"Missed that," Daryl grunted in admission, slowing the SUV, his curiosity getting the better of him. "Looks like someone blocked off the gravel driveway and ran stuff through those trees to hide it." Pulling off the road slowly, he carefully drew closer to the wood, inspecting the dense trees and those running across the drive before exclaiming, "Well, look at that…it's damn Christmas trees! Smart." He watched carefully as they pulled in closer and didn't see any people, trip wires or anything else alarming. "Shut up just a moment, okay?" The hunter considered the situation, then said, "They went through some trouble to hide it, whatever it is…could have booby traps and everything."

"You want to split up?" Mike asked. "I'd be willing to…."

Daryl cut him off brutally, "Hell, no, I don't want to split up, but I don't want to get the SUV stuck somewhere either. I'm going to get out and move some of the trees in the track and look for traps. You're going to get behind the wheel and pull through when I signal you that it's safe and then I'll put the trees back to hide where we are again."

Mike looked wide-eyed for a moment, "Okay…uh…okay, I can do that…Daryl, the thing is that I…."

"I don't want to discuss it, I just need you to drive this car about twenty feet through the gap I make in some trees when I signal you to, okay?"

"Uh…Daryl?"

"Can you drive or not?"

"Well, yeah…."

"Okay, then, you get over here and drive it through when I signal it's okay," Daryl said once more and slid out onto the gravel drive.

He scouted thoroughly as he walked up to the fake trees, looking all around carefully as he walked. Not seeing anything alarming the bow man carefully moved aside three of the trees to make room for the SUV. They'd been placed directly into cups in the dirt of the driveway to keep them upright while still allowing the trees to be moved when necessary. Daryl took several steps down the drive, squatting down to get a closer look at the vague tracks there to try to tell the last time someone passed this way as he noted it was a long way to get to the large, white house at the end. A bee buzzed around his head and his waved a hand to brush off the pest as he straightened.

The next thing he knew, he heard the rev of the SUV's engine, then he was flying through the air, only to land in gravel at least ten feet from where he had been seconds before. Hearing the engine rev again, Daryl panicked and pushed off the ground to roll into the grass at the side of the drive just before the SUV went careening past and on down the long drive. There was a boom as the vehicle hit something and Daryl cursed as he brushed gravel off his arms as best he could, though he was thoroughly scratched up and some gravel had embedded into his flesh.

Daryl forced himself up and glared toward the vehicle, wondering what the hell had ever inspired him to try to be nice to that imbicle in the first place. Cursing, he grabbed up the trees and shoved them in the cups, then stalked toward the house, which was down a long drive, planning ways to do away with the moron behind the wheel. A couple walkers in the yard allowed him to get out some of his aggressions as he stabbed the first one quickly through the temple, angling his blade downward to get the part of the brain supposedly affected by the virus, then hitting the second walker a couple times before he stabbed that one too.

Walking and stabbing had loosened him up a bit after being hit by the SUV and he was feeling ready for battle as he approached the SUV. Mike's scared face stared at him, bug-eyed as the hunter stalked toward him for just a moment before the newbie grabbed for the far door and tried to get out of the vehicle, forgetting to put it in park or anything and Daryl was glad for a moment that the engine was apparently still working as he grabbed the driver's side door and snatched the key out of the ignition while grabbing Mike by the waistband of his pants with the other hand.

The guy was so dumb he hadn't even locked the doors in the world they were in and Daryl didn't know whether or not to be happy about that fact.

He decided on happy as he dragged the other man out of the SUV and into the lawn.

"Oh, stop your yelling," he growled at Mike as the other man babbled at him. Daryl reached back in the vehicle and slammed the automatic shift into park just in case, taking a few deep breaths as he did so before turning back to the asshole. "What the fuck did you think you were doing?" He was trying to keep his voice down and it came out as a cross between a snarl and a growl and he felt a moment of satisfaction at the look of horror on the other man's face.

"I tried to tell you…I tried…" Mike took a breath then ploughed ahead. "I can drive, I really can, but I get nervous behind the wheel."

"So, you can't drive," Daryl stated flatly.

"I can! I just don't do well under pressure!"

"What pressure?" Daryl asked incredulously, running one of his hands through his hair. "There's no fucking traffic, there were no fucking walkers, no other fucking people we can see…just you and me. Why the hell panic?"

"Well, I was waiting for your signal and I saw you signal and I know you like people to do things when you tell them to and then I stepped on the gas and the car I used to have wasn't very fast or anything." He flapped his hands a bit helplessly, "It just all got away from me."

"Fuck..." Daryl really couldn't think of any other word for it and was no longer sure if he was furious with Mike any longer or himself for trying to be generous and bring this idiot along for what should have been a peaceful outing. He glared at the other man, "I was waving off a bee. Why the hell would I want you to move forward when I wasn't even looking at you or getting out of the way?"

"You waved your hand," Mike offered, weakly.

"Well, God forbid I do that around you again! The bee would have just stung me, not driven a damn car into me." He gently kicked the other man who was still laying down in the yard, which felt just a little too good and he had to force himself not to do it again, harder. "Get up and let's see if there's anyone or anything here worthwhile."

The men walked cautiously up the front steps and onto what was still a large and luxurious porch. Not only were there a couple large porch swings and rockers, but there was a gazebo-like structure at one corner of the porch with a table and chairs on what was now a rather musty carpet. Daryl turned slowly, noting that it must have been spectacular at one time. He could see a horse barn and another structure for working out horses and the outlines of fences around the property. Yeah, it must have been quite a place just a couple years ago.

They tested the door and found it locked, naturally, and Daryl ended up going back to the SUV and digging out the tire iron to use to pop the lock out and get in. At one time both he and Merle had had bump keys to get in to locked places, but his had been lost one of the times they'd run and he'd never found out what happened to Merle's...it sure hadn't been on the key ring for the motorcycle. A set of lock picks or implements fine enough to use for lock picks was always on his wish list when they went out.

When the door opened, Daryl unslung his crossbow from across his back and checked it over, (how it wasn't hurt when that idiot slammed into him he'd never know), and they entered cautiously, rapping on the wall near the door to try and attract any walkers in the house. They were rewarded with growling and three figures coming toward them from one of the other rooms. Daryl took out two of them while Mike did manage the third. At least he didn't panic or hesitate anymore when it came to stabbing a walker, Daryl thought with some grim satisfaction that all the work they were doing with these people might be doing some good since many of them, including Mike, had been surprisingly useless when they'd arrived at the prison.

Well, not everyone was lucky enough to have been raised in the country by an asshole who wouldn't even feed his own kids and who was faster with his fists than with a kind word.

Having dispatched the walkers, the men did a quick circuit through that level of the house, every bit as refined and lavish as the front porch must have been at one time, even the room that had been messed up when the man in it had obviously shot himself through the head, probably after he'd shot the others through the chests or somewhere else stupid in some idiotic murder-suicide. The men didn't stop, though, and soon went up the stairs to clear the next level where they found one walker and finished it.

The second floor had some surprises, including a room that had what was obviously a recording booth and equipment for recording and re-arranging music that must have been the envy of many at one time. Another room was full of guitars, some of which were electric and useless in their lives now, but even had a ukulele, a mandolin and a steel guitar. Daryl almost ignored it until he suddenly remembered Beth singing several times and her blushing admission that she'd learned how to play the guitar from the Greene's dead hand, Otis. These looked like fine guitars, even if he didn't recognize all the names or symbols on them.

One of them looked plain, but there was something about the beautiful wood it was made of that Daryl liked the look of and he plucked it off its stand carefully.

"That's a Taylor…that's a good guitar," Mike stammered out like a peace offering. He flushed when Daryl eyed him in an unfriendly way, "Uh…my brother-in-law, he played and he loved those guitars. Not the most expensive thing out there, but not cheap either." Looking around quickly and opening some drawers, he pulled out some boxes. "Uh, these are strings for all the stuff here…we could take some of them, maybe find some picks and stuff if you wanted to take one back to….well, to anyone," he finished lamely, just having remembered Daryl's injunction about mentioning Beth.

"Let's get a couple, just in case, the uke and the mandolin too, and all the strings and picks we can find." Spotting a sheaf of hand-written music and some blank pages with lines, Daryl grabbed that up as well and looked around until he found an old messenger bag he could shove it into before he started pulling out guitar cases to find one that fit the first instrument he'd picked up.

"You know anything about these others?" Daryl reluctantly asked Mike as they worked to package up what they wanted.

"No, just that one brand. Tim, now, he knew them all and could have tested them for you...man, I miss him!"

It was the first time Daryl could really remember Mike expressing grief over anyone he'd lost and made a grunting sound of encouragement before he could stop himself, sighing a little when the other man started talking about his one-time brother-in-law, who'd apparently been some kind of paragon who could do anything at all he put his mind to whenever it was needed.

"You remind me of him," Mike confessed, abruptly jerking Daryl's attention back to his companion. "I mean, not physically…he was shorter than you and blonde and all, but you're really smart and you either know how to do stuff or you figure it out. You…don't panic." He flushed uncomfortably, "I'm so sorry about hitting you with the car, Daryl."

Embarrassed at this awkward display of bromance, Daryl grunted, "You try to hold my hand or anything you're going to think I hit you with that Jeep."

o))O((o

Except for a few cotton shirts, a man's leather jacket and a couple real shearling coats, most of the clothes were too fancy to be useful, though Daryl had grabbed all the boots he could find too, even if most were the fancy English kind. Also, most of the food in the house had spoiled. Whoever had been there hadn't been into canning or keeping things long-term. Probably some of those fancy people who wanted it all fresh and organic and thought bacon and pickles were the work of Satan or something. Why you'd have all that land and not a garden or even fruit or nut trees in sight was beyond him. He stopped Mike from playing with the knobs and switches on the fancy stove just as he'd played with other knobs and stuff throughout the house, and they headed outside.

It probably wasn't a place to which they'd ever come back and Daryl was frustrated by the fact that they hadn't found more useful stuff especially after all the nonsense with the trees and nearly getting run over and all that nonsense, but he was hoping Beth would at least like the instruments and they might soften her up enough that he could apologize properly.

If he could ever stop laughing inappropriately.

The engine seemed okay when Daryl started up the SUV and he was about to get out of the vehicle to look under it when Mike asked, "You think we should look in the barn or that other building?"

His instincts were telling Daryl that there wouldn't be anything good in either structure and to just forget trying to find anything else, but Mike had been trying hard since almost running him over and the hunter was trying to get along, so he drove over to the barn since the engine was already going even though there was only about twenty yards between the house and the barn.

There was some banging coming from inside the barn and Daryl was approaching the whole thing with caution, the debacle at the Greene farm not being far enough away in his memory for carelessness (he wondered sometimes if it ever would be) and the other man paced along beside him until they were pressed up against the barn doors, which weren't chained.

Just as they were leaning up against the doors so Daryl could listen there was an almighty roar of sound from the house, which suddenly exploded, sending a fireball and bits of wood and debris shooting off in all directions, including some in theirs. Both men startled and Mike banged into Daryl, knocking him into the dirt, before the panicked man grabbed the barn door and hauled it open impulsively seeking shelter from any further bits of debris.

Of course, no sooner had Mike opened the doors than the characteristic groaning and hissing of walkers became immediately apparent and, though Daryl knew he couldn't see all of them, he counted at least twelve off the bat, which was highly motivational for getting off the ground. Daryl moved without fully thinking about it, standing back up and yanking his knife from its sheath before using it to stick through the temple of the first walker that reached him.

The next few moments were a blur of stabbing and hitting and pushing one walker into another to give himself a few seconds here and there. He pulled a walker off Mike who was being overwhelmed by more than one and finally got his partner out of trouble. They managed to run back to the SUV and Daryl shoved the garrulous fellow into the vehicle, made it around to the driver's side while stabbing two more walkers and then managed to get in himself. There weren't many walkers left and Daryl managed to run over a couple of them as he revved the engine and got them out of there, not bothering with the trees, but driving back to the road through one of the empty fields. They bounced back onto the asphalt and Daryl raced down the road back in the direction of the prison. They were only about a mile from one of the towns they'd passed when the vehicle made a choking noise and they coasted to a stop before the engine gave a death-rattle and stopped completely.

Cursing again, Daryl gave Mike another stern warning to stay where he was and not touch anything, then popped the hood and got out of the vehicle so he could take a look and try to get the beast running again. What he saw wasn't encouraging and leaving the vehicle seemed like the only option. He was relieved to spot another house not too far away that could have something they could use. The hunter went back to get the key and tell Mike to get out of the car and come with him before collecting his bow and heading toward the house.

Mike fell back to his normal jibber-jabber as they walked and Daryl wished desperately that he could tune the guy out because apparently Mike was actually talking about a time he'd taken his car to the dealership to be fixed and he was sure he'd gotten ripped off after the guys had found out he didn't know anything about cars.

Making it to the house, Daryl peered through the windows to the garage and spotted a shiny, fancy SUV in there before seeing the regular side-door that the folks had had to allow them into garage from the yard or driveway. Breaking the window and getting inside was the work of a moment and then they were inside and checking the vehicle. Someone had left the electronic key in the console and Daryl was able to push the button, start the engine and see that there was still about half a tank of gas. He'd never been able to afford a Lexus in his previous life and the hunter took a moment to admire the leather seats and beautiful console and the silence before he got back out to open the garage door. The men got into the fancy vehicle and Daryl had pulled quickly out onto the road and back to their broken-down SUV so they could transfer all their stuff from one to the other.

Lucky. Daryl couldn't believe how lucky they'd gotten with the new vehicle. Stuff like that never happened anymore – at least not to him - and after everything that had gone wrong that day he was amazed they hadn't had to walk all the way back to the prison, camping overnight and hiding out until they'd been able to get back to the others. Just trying to imagine days on end walking with Mike in the heat of summer while trying to hide from walkers and other people gave him a headache and Daryl was sure he'd have ended up committing some act of violence of which Beth wouldn't have approved.

Taking a slightly different route on the way back to the prison, Daryl was gratified to see a number of farms and a grove of pecan trees that would be good for later in the year and a couple small towns that each had one or two small restaurants, a pharmacy and some shops that looked like they might have a few things left along the new path. They stopped at a gas station in one of the towns because there was actually a propane tank that looked unused in the rack outside, so Daryl decided they should grab that and then go in to check out the store since they were stopped anyhow. He grabbed the electronic key he'd seen and shoved it in his pocket but left the doors unlocked in case they needed to make a quick exit.

Whoever had owned the gas station appeared to have simply left the doors unlocked and Daryl was grateful for small favors. They stopped and banged on the glass, then killed the two walkers that came up, making it inside before attracting the attention of anything outside. There was hardly anything on the shelves, but Daryl scored a few basic car parts and a box of headache powders that had gotten kicked under some shelving and seemed unopened. Nothing else that was left seemed worth much of anything to them and the men headed back to the doors, only to discover that there were now several walkers milling around the SUV that they'd have to kill before getting back into the vehicle.

Three walkers wasn't that many at all. Daryl had regularly killed more than that all on his own and there had been far more than that back at the farm, so there was no reason for him to think that Mike wouldn't be able to handle his part either. It took him by surprise, then, when his shoulder was suddenly jostled as he raised his arm to stab the closest one and he completely missed the walker's head and stabbed it in the neck as Mike suddenly ran past him and jumped in the SUV, apparently trying to start the vehicle.

Daryl found himself cussing again as he wrenched his blade back out of the walker's throat and stabbed it again, while trying to keep it from biting him before it died, again. By that time the other walkers had gotten closer and he shoved the closer one down to the ground and went after the further one before going back to take out the one that was still trying to get up. He stalked back toward the Lexus, glaring at the man who seemed to have lost his mind again. Mike seemed to be frantically trying to lock the doors or start the car as Daryl approached, things he couldn't do because Daryl had the key (thank God he'd never gotten out of the habit of taking keys with him), and the redneck hauled open the driver's side door and dragged the other man out by the collar of his shirt.

Mike was continuing to apologize, but Daryl just wasn't having any of it anymore. He hauled back one work-hardened fist and slammed it into Mike's solar plexus like a sledgehammer, listening to the satisfying wheeze as the breath left the other man's body and watched as the other man dropped to the ground as he tried to regain his breath. As the other man struggled for air for a moment, Daryl looked down at him and said coldly, "I'm done with your excuses and apologies and your fucking non-stop talking! You ever do anything stupid like that to me or anyone else again, I will kill you myself. I don't know what your problem is, but it all ends right here and right now. It doesn't and you don't get back in the vehicle again. I'm done with your bullshit."

"Can't help it…" the other man wheezed.

"Yes, you fucking can help it! We all want to panic sometimes, we all want to run away or do stupid stuff, but we don't because we can all help it. You do it too or you will either die or leave and not come back to our group." Daryl made sure he looked Mike right in the eyes and that the other man could see he meant what he said before adding, "You want to come back, get up and get in that SUV and come back, but you're going to stop all your foolishness and be a man. You're going to get others killed if you keep on like that."

Daryl felt a surge of satisfaction as the other man stumbled to his feet and to the passenger-side door. Before the other man got in the vehicle, though, the hunter stopped him and made him give up all his weapons. Daryl shoved them into the far back with the propane tank and the car parts he'd found before getting into the driver's seat himself, starting the Lexus and continuing on to the prison.

They got back later than they'd intended because of the problems they'd had and Daryl shoved the other man in the direction of the dining hall before stopping to talk with Rick and let him know what had happened that day. "I told him not to pull that shit again and get it together, but I'm not taking that asshole out again. Maybe we can use him as bait if we need to send a bunch of walkers away or something."

Rick had been leaning down and examining the new vehicle as Daryl talked and now straightened out and pushed back the sheriff's hat he sometimes wore when Carl wasn't feeling too possessive and Daryl got a good look at his face for the first time that night.

"What happened to your eyebrow?" Daryl asked with a surprised grin.

Rick grinned wryly back in response, "Uh, if Carol or Beth tells you they found some old black powder in one of the storerooms and they need you to set fire to a little of it and see if it's any good, you should know…it's good."

Daryl couldn't help laughing and Rick joined him with a shake of his head before adding, "If you're going to apologize to her again, you better have a damn good one saved up."

"Found some instruments in case she wants to play and some other stuff she might like at that house today; figured I'd give it to her when I saw her tonight and hope they have mercy on me."

Leaving the car parts in the SUV, Rick helped Daryl carry in Mike's weapons and the instruments while Daryl grabbed the tote with the music sheets, extra strings and stuff.

The hunter felt horrible when he saw Beth's poor, bruised face and no urge to laugh at all came up. Even though he knew the darkening bruises were actually a sign of healing, they looked so much worse and more painful that Daryl felt even sorrier than before at what had happened to this sweet girl and he put down one of the cases he was carrying and leaned in to give her a gentle hug and a kiss on the forehead when he was close enough.

"Thought you might want a guitar or something and these looked nice," he mumbled near her ear and handed her the one with the Taylor piece in it.

When Beth had opened the case she gave a soft exclamation and ran her hands over the smooth wood. "Daryl, it's beautiful!" she exclaimed softly. "I could never have afforded one like this before…oh, it's just beautiful!" She pulled it out and managed to tune it before playing some rich notes and adding, "It's got a gorgeous tone! I'm going to have so much fun playing it when I feel better!" Putting the instrument back, she examined the others enthusiastically, but really got excited when she saw the musical sheets. "The blank ones will be so nice…I can write out some songs on them!" Looking more closely she added, "Oh, my God, Daryl! These are from Mark White!"

Daryl looked at her blankly before admitting, "Never heard of him."

"You probably wouldn't have," Beth nodded. "He was a songwriter, but he never seemed to make it big like Chris Stapleton and some others, but he was great! I can't wait to play these when I get a chance!"

Stopping her before she stepped backwards and fell over one of the benches at a table, Daryl handed her carefully back into the aisle and handed her two of the cases to carry back to her cell as he carried the others and the music behind her.

"Even better than the ring," Beth whispered to him as she leaned up to kiss him carefully and he folded his arms around her cautiously to snuggle her for a moment.

It was absolutely perfect.

At least until the image flashed in front of his eyes again and he snorted trying to stop the laughter.

"Daryl!"


End file.
